President’ s Message
MVHA Presidents
Innovation Abounds
News & Notes
This newsletter is published four times a year by the MOUNTAIN VIEW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION P. O. Box 252, Mountain View, CA 94042 www. mountainviewhistorical. org
MVHA Board of Directors President: Pamela Baird Vice-President: Robert Cox Secretary: Jamil Shaikh Treasurer: Melissa Rusch Past President: Nicholas Perry
Historical Data: David Salinero Membership: Lisa Garcia Newsletter: Nick Perry & Melanie Kaye Director-at-Large: Carol Donahue
Director-at-Large: IdaRose Sylvester Member-at-Large: Melanie Kaye
Newsletter Design & Layout by Nicholas Perry and Melanie Kaye
President’ s Message
By Pamela Baird
MVHA Presidents
Innovation Abounds
At our Winter History event held February 2, we presented information about the early innovators and patents holders of Mountain View( see articles on pages 4 and 7).
Pamela Baird
Naively, I offered to conduct research and present the program. The project turned out to be much larger than I ever anticipated. At first, we thought there would be only a few individuals to discuss, but as we did more searching, we learned that there is a long and rich history of tinkering, adapting and innovation in and around Mountain View.
In doing the research, several things caught my attention. Four of the first five patent holders were immigrants. This is not surprising, as many people arrived in the United States and California from Europe and Cantonese speaking areas of China in the second half of the 1800s, all seeking a better future. I was surprised by the number of patents granted to men in their 60s. The average age for the 18 patents belonging to nine men was 56 years of age. Lastly, I was surprised by how often some of the individuals moved around, from overseas, state to state or city to city. Most had families, which made moving even more complicated. How does one move a family of five 1,000 miles by train? How is this risk taking reflected in the creativity and chances that these men took in their businesses and careers?
In keeping with the theme of innovation, we will profile the stories of two patent holders in the next four or five newsletters. In addition, we will feature an article in each newsletter about innovations from over one hundred years ago. In our winter issue we covered“ When electric streetlights came to MV”. For this issue we cover the bicycle, an innovative product that changed society and culture. Today the bicycle is a prevalent part of the lives of many people globally, nationally and locally.
MVHA Board of Directors Email: info @ mountainviewhistorical. org
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